Check out Joe Staley's most recent rookie diary entry where he discusses the start of his first ever off-season and a strenuous yoga class with his mom.
As I discussed in my last diary, I had some friends come out for a few days before I left San Francisco after the season. They got in on New Years Eve day and so we dropped some stuff off at my apartment and then headed to the city. Eric Heitmann's wife Emily set up this whole New Years bash so we checked into the Grand Hyatt and then went out to dinner at this place called The Vessel. The general consensus between me and my friends was that it was the best time of our entire lives, right up there with my first tee ball game home run, my first football game, and the earthquake I experienced a few months ago.
We didn't do much sightseeing while they were here. We mostly hung out and caught up with each other.
We flew out first thing last Friday morning and basically I only packed a huge 70 pound bag of clothes since my apartment out here in Michigan is already furnished. So far Michigan has been very boring, and very rainy. It's rained every day since I've been here and I'm really missing the California weather. It's awesome to just have some time off, but it's also really boring. I need to start making myself a weekly schedule because otherwise I end up sitting around doing nothing.
I did watch the playoff game between the Steelers and the Jaguars. I actually think the Jags have a good chance of upsetting the Patriots this weekend. They have a great running game and good defense so if they can control the clock, I think they can keep the Patriots out of their game plan.
So what else? I'm watching what I'm eating and I am doing a lot of running and bicycling. These next couple of weeks I'm not going to do anything too extensive, just some cardio while I try to heal up and get my body right and then I'll start training hard again.
I did take my first yoga class this week. My mom really wanted to go so I agreed. It was the most intense thing ever in my life. I thought it was going to be stretching and deep breathing – the stuff they make pregnant ladies do, nothing too strenuous, but I got there and it was no joke. First off, I made sure I was in the back corner of the room because it was all 50-year old women, one other elderly guy, and then me. So, I felt a little out of place.
They were all like yoga experts. We get in these poses and it was relaxing at first and then the instructor was like, "that was a good warm-up," and basically tells us to get into a lunge stance and hold it for seven minutes. It was god awful and my legs were hurting so bad, and I was sweating profusely.
A very funny thing happened though during my pain. We are in the middle of one of our poses where you hold it and take a really deep breath. So, they've got this mood music going and this lady who was two to my left proceeds to just let one fly. It surprised the crap not only out of only, but her as well. She goes "OOPS." I tried so hard to ignore it and be a mature citizen and hold in my laughter, but I couldn't. I just let out this loud laugh, and I felt really bad for giggling because she was embarrassed and here I am the only person in that whole class laughing of course.
Anyhow, I did my commercial for the car dealership and it was just a riot. These commercials have been notorious in Rockland for the last ten years and are always entertaining, so it was privilege to be in one of their commercials. There were two 30 second commercials, and for one of them, I had a very serious script. I was trying to adlib, but they didn't want me going over the 30-second time, so I was kind of upset. I thought I could make it my own private comedy show, but they weren't having it.
Instead I felt a lot of pressure because the first one was this long paragraph I had to memorize. The owner of the dealership did it with me and he had the first paragraph to read, and he had several mess ups, so when he would get it right, I felt a lot of anxiety not to be the one to screw it up. All in all, it took about an hour and a half and in return I get to drive a 2008 Silverado which I'm really liking.
I heard we hired an offensive coordinator – Mike Martz. I know he's had success with his system, and his offense has always put up a lot of yards, so we'll see what happens. It was weird for me to see Coach Hostler let go. It makes you realize very quickly how cutthroat this business is. Hos was a good guy and I wish him luck.
I called Snyder to talk about the hire, and mainly because I know he's missing me obviously.
That's all for this one –
Staley
